by Anna Blakely
“I’m confused. If you didn’t want to jump, and Scott made you feel okay about not jumping, then why do it?”
“I don’t know.” Nate looked out onto the shimmering water below. “Maybe it was because I knew Scott was leaving for boot camp the week after we got back home, or the fact that I didn’t want those boys to keep teasing me the rest of the time we were here. All I do know is the minute Scott held out his hand and offered to either jump with me or walk me back to our cabin, it was like a switch was flipped. Suddenly, there was nothing that would have kept me from jumping with him.”
“What happened after?”
Nate’s smile grew wider. “We spent the rest of the day jumping into the lake.”
Gracie smiled. “That’s a really great memory, Nate.”
“It is,” he nodded. “So, what do you say?”
Not understanding, she asked, “What do I say about what?”
He tilted his chin toward the edge of the cliff. “You want to try it?”
“Me?” Her jaw dropped, and she put her hands palms-up. “Oh, I-I don’t know.”
“You can swim, right? You told me you could when we rented the canoe.”
“Yeah.” She nodded her head. “I’m an okay swimmer, I guess.” She looked back over the edge and swallowed hard. “But, that’s a really long way down.”
“I know it seems like it, but it’s actually not. You’ll only be in the air a few seconds before we’re in the water, and I promise I’ll be with you the whole time.”
If she didn’t want to jump, Nate wasn’t going to pressure her. Gracie seemed to be considering it, though.
Biting her lip, she studied the distance to the water closely. Through the mesh of her water shoes, he could see her big toe bouncing up and down and felt guilty for making her feel so nervous.
“You know what? Never mind. Forget I said anything. We’ll just go back down to the bank and swim around for a while.”
Nate took her hand in his and started back toward the trees. They’d made it three whole steps before he felt a strong tug on his arm.
“No.”
He turned to face her. “No?”
Gracie straightened her shoulders. “I want to do it. I want to jump.”
“You sure? It’s seriously fine if we don’t.”
“I’m sure.”
He could tell she was still nervous, but a new look of determination had begun to take over.
“Okay, then. Let’s do it.” Once they got to the edge of the cliff, Nate gave her a few tips. “You want to land feet first. Try to make yourself as straight and tall as possible before you hit the water. Think pencil.”
“Just not the bendy kind, right?”
Nate chuckled. “Right. You ready?”
Gracie looked down one last time. She drew in a deep breath then let it out slowly and nodded. “Ready.”
Like Scott did with him all those years ago, Nate grabbed her hand and said, “Together on three.” With their eyes locked, he counted aloud, “One. Two. Three!” Then, they jumped.
Gracie screamed as they fell. Though, he tried to keep ahold of her hand, they became separated as their bodies hit the water.
Nate torpedoed deeper and deeper, his momentum finally slowing when his toes met a much cooler area beneath the surface.
He then began to move his legs and arms as he’d been trained, and within seconds, his head was above water again.
“So.” He used one hand to rub his eyes before running it roughly across the top of his head a couple times. “What did you think?”
Blinking against the few droplets still remaining on his lashes, Nate looked to where he thought Gracie had landed. Assuming he’d gotten turned around, he spun himself in the opposite direction. He saw only rippling water.
“Gracie?”
Nate looked to the spot where they’d secured their canoe thinking maybe she’d already began swimming to the shore, but it sat empty. Bobbing up and down easily from the miniscule waves he and Gracie had caused.
Heart in his throat, Nate’s head whipped back around, but there was still no sign of her.
“Gracie!” he yelled loudly, waiting another second before diving under to search for her there.
The sound of Nate’s panicked heartbeat filled his ears as he tried to see through the cloudy, green water. His arms swiped this way and that in hopes he’d bump into her, but he felt nothing.
When he resurfaced again, she was nowhere to be seen.
“Gracelynn!”
Terrified she’d landed wrong and was under the water and unconscious, Nate prepared to go back down and continue searching. Filling his lungs with as much air as they could hold, his face had almost hit the water when he felt something touch his back.
“Yes?”
He twisted his body around. A strange, guttural sound of relief escaped his throat when he saw her.
Treading water with ease, Gracie smiled back at him as though she didn’t have a care in the world.
“What the…where the hell were you?”
She looked confused. “What do you mean? I’ve been here.” Gracie glanced around them and smiled again. “The water felt so nice and refreshing, I decided to stay under and swim around in it for a while.”
“You decided to…” Unable to believe what he was hearing, Nate clamped his teeth together and began breathing through his nose. Still attempting to slow his racing pulse, he opened his mouth then closed it. Then, he opened it again. “You’re kidding.”
“What? And you were right, by the way. That was a total rush. We should do it again.”
“You want to do it again?” He bit out. “You want to do it again? I thought you’d fucking drowned, Gracelynn. I came up, and you were just…gone. What the fuck were you thinking?”
“You’re mad.”
“Damn right, I’m mad. I thought—” Nate cut himself off when he noticed the way she was looking at him.
Gracie was trying to hold her serious expression, but she’d rolled her lips inward and laughter lit up her mischievous eyes.
It had taken him a few minutes, but Nate finally realized what had just happened.
“You did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
Now biting her lip, Gracie remained quiet. The damn fool woman was clearly struggling to keep from laughing.
“Damn it, woman. You about gave me a goddamn heart attack!”
“S-sorry,” she barely sputtered out the insincere apology before losing it. With a near-hysterical laugh, she managed to say, “You should…have seen…your face.”
“Oh, you think that was funny?”
She laughed even harder. “A little bit, yeah.”
Anger gone—Because, how the hell could he stay mad when she seemed so happy?—Nate stared to swim toward her. “I’ll show you funny.”
Knowing what was coming, Gracie’s eyes widened, and she screamed. Turning with lightening-like speed, she laughed as she fought hard to swim away.
Nate was on her before she ever had the chance to escape.
She squealed and laughed even harder when his fingers found her ribs. Tickling her mercilessly, he continued the torture until Gracie begged for him to stop.
“Please,” she pleaded breathlessly. “Oh, God. Please stop!”
Talking loudly enough she could hear him over her own laughter, Nate asked, “You gonna scare me like that again?”
“No!” She shook her head emphatically.
“Promise?”
“I promise! I promise!”
Nate stilled his hands. “Okay, then.”
“Oh, my God,” Gracie’s words escaped with an exhale of relief. With her hands on his shoulders, she steadied herself. “I can barely breathe right now.”
“Speaking of breathing…” Nate kept hold of her, his legs kicking to the sides to help keep them both afloat. “Where’d you learn to hold your breath like that?”
“Impressed?”
Nate parroted her words from before. “A little
bit, yeah.”
With a smug grin, she told him, “I was on my high school swim team. Then, in college, I made extra money working as a lifeguard at the campus rec center.”
“So, that whole scene up there.” Nate lifted his chin toward the cliff. “Acting all scared and nervous. That was just an act?”
Gracie gave him an unapologetic smirk. “A girl can’t reveal all her secrets at one time, now, can she?”
Narrowing his eyes, Nate squeezed her ribs a bit tighter and playfully growled. This caused her to laugh again, making his already half-hard dick rise to full mast.
Something Gracie felt the instant she moved in to give him a hug.
Chapter 11
“Oh,” Gracie pushed herself away from Nate. “Sorry.” She was both surprised and embarrassed by his body’s reaction to her.
“Sorry,” he said at the exact same time. Then, he gave her that damn-sexy, lopsided grin. “That tends to happen a lot around you. Just ignore it.”
Not likely. With butterflies dancing around in her lower belly, she continued to tread water and brought her eyes to his.
With a slightly pinker tint to his cheeks, Nate swallowed hard. Though, a part of her—a throbbing, aching part—enjoyed the hell out of the fact he’d basically just admitted to having had multiple erections because of her, she also didn’t want to make things harder on him than they already were.
Pun intended.
“After this craziness is over, right?” Gracie tried her best to sound perfectly fine with waiting for anything more.
Heat instantly filled his eyes. “Right.”
Her heart thumped powerfully inside her chest as she imagined the hard shaft she’d just felt against her belly sliding into her aching core.
She licked her lips and whispered, “Good.”
Nate had just opened his mouth to say something else when a loud string of thunder rolled above them.
Gracie looked up at a large, gray cloud making its way toward them. “That doesn’t look good.”
He followed her gaze. “Damn. We should probably head back.”
With their mutual flirting session over, Gracie hid her disappointment by turning and swimming back toward the canoe. She could hear Nate making his way through the water behind her, but it was obvious he was keeping a safe distance between them.
It’s for the best. That little voice in her head was right. At least she fought to convince herself it was.
An hour later, they were back inside the cabin. After taking turns showering, Nate fixed them some ham and cheese sandwiches.
It was still thundering but hadn’t started to rain, so they decided to sit out on the small porch to eat.
Rocking in one of the two wooden rocking chairs, Gracie sat her empty plate down and sighed. “That was really good. Thank you.”
“You get enough to eat? I can make you another one, if you’d like.”
“No, thank you. I’m actually in the mood for something sweet.”
“We could make S’mores.”
Gracie felt her face light up. “I forgot we bought the stuff for those.”
Smiling back at her, Nate stood. “I’ll go start the fire.”
More than okay with that plan, she rushed to gather their plates before going inside. After washing the two saucers and sitting them in the small, plastic drying rack, Gracie went to the cabinet where Nate had stored all the dry goods.
Once the ingredients had been collected, she grabbed the two roasting forks by the door and headed back outside. She grinned, not surprised in the least that Nate had already managed to get the fire going.
The stone fire pit was positioned between their cabin and the one next door. Before today, that cabin had remained empty, but when they’d gotten back from their little outing, she’d noticed a small, gold car sitting in its parking space.
“Wonder who our neighbors are,” she mused as she made her way to one of the two benches provided for the guests. Positioned on opposite sides of the pit, she chose the one closest to their cabin.
“Larry and Connie Hays. Larry’s a retired sheriff from a few counties over, and Connie is a retired school teacher. Neither have any priors and they both appear to be good, upstanding citizens.”
When Gracie’s jaw dropped, Nate innocently asked, “What? I ran their plates as soon as we got back.”
Of course he had.
Before showering, she’d seen him checking the feed from the almost-invisible security cameras he’d installed the first night they’d gotten here. She hadn’t realized he’d ran complete background checks on their poor, unsuspecting neighbors, too.
“For a minute there, I sort of forgot why we were here.”
“For a minute there”—his gaze bore into hers—“so did I.”
Knowing he was thinking of the earlier moment in the lake, Gracie tried to come up with something else to talk about. Before she could, a sing-song voice travelled over to them.
“Hello!”
A tiny bit of a woman was walking toward them next to a man who towered over her. Her short hair was a pretty blonde and she looked to be around sixty or so. The man appeared a bit older, and the cowboy hat and boots he was wearing were definitely not just for show.
The woman walked straight up to Gracie and held out her hand.
“Hi. I’m Connie. This is my husband, Larry. We’re staying in the cabin next door.”
“Hello. I’m…”
Panic struck. This was the first time they’d really talked to anyone since checking in and Gracie realized she couldn’t remember the name she was supposed to be using. Thankfully, Nate picked up on it and jumped right in.
“James Winters.” He practically shoved his hand into the other woman’s. “And this shy beauty right here is my wife, Lynn. Nice to meet you.”
After exchanging smiles and handshakes with the seemingly sweet couple, Gracie gave Nate a sideways glance. He responded with a wink and a smile, making her feel slightly better about her near flub-up.
“So, where are y’all from?” Connie asked.
“Dallas,” Nate answered for them both. “Well, I’m originally from out east, but I transplanted here a few years ago.”
“You mind if we join you for a few?”
“Sure.” Nate held out his hand toward the other bench. “We were just about to cook us up some S’mores. You’re welcome to have some.”
“Oh, I do love chocolate.”
As the four of them sat down, Larry chuckled. In his deep, smoker’s voice, he joked, “She’d probably find a way to marry it, if she wasn’t already attached to me.”
Nate laughed, and Gracie awkwardly joined in. She opened one of the candy bars and broke off two pieces. One for her, and one for Connie.
Chewing slowly, she knew she needed to figure out a way past the guilt of their deception, or she’d end up completely blowing their cover.
I can do this.
Drawing in a steady breath, she swallowed the sweet treat and spoke up. “What about you? Where are you from?”
“Beaumont. It’s about an hour and a half south of here.”
“Beaumont,” Nate repeated the city’s name. “That’s just north of Port Arthur, isn’t it?”
“That’s right.” Larry gave him a nod. “Home of the world’s largest oil refinery.”
“I remember. My parents drove my brother and I through there once when I was younger.”
“Larry, here, used to be the sheriff of Jefferson County.”
“That was a long time ago, Con.”
“I know.” Connie nudged her husband with her shoulder. “I still like to brag about you, though.”
Gracie smiled. These two were absolutely adorable.
“So.” Larry looked to Nate. “What brings you two out here?”
“Actually”—Nate put his arm around Gracie’s shoulders and pulled her closer—“We’re celebrating our two-year anniversary.”
“Two years? Oh, my. Larry, do you even remember when it had on
ly been two years?”
The other man gave his wife an ornery smile. “Hell, yeah, I remember.” Then, he lowered his voice and winked at Nate. “Those days were a lot of fun.”
“Larry!” Connie playfully smacked his arm, but Gracie didn’t miss the look the two shared after.
“Yeah, I sure can’t complain,” Nate grinned.
“Well, take it from an old fogy like me. You treat each other right, and you’ll have a whole lot of great years together.”
“Oh, I plan to, Larry. Don’t worry.” Nate glanced down at Gracie. She could have sworn he was being serious when he said, “I can’t imagine my life without her.”
“So, tell me. How did you two meet?” Connie asked sounding genuinely interested.
Still blushing, Gracie decided to take the lead. “We met outside the building where we both work.” When Nate gave her an approving smile, she asked, “Would you like to tell the story?”
“Go ahead. It’s always better when you tell it.”
Biting her bottom lip, Gracie thought a moment, and then remembered what he’d told her before.
Stick as close to the truth as possible without giving yourself away.
“I’d gone to this little coffee shop across the street from our building.”
“What do you do?” Larry directed the question to Nate.
“I work for a security company.”
“Like, home security systems, that sort of thing?”
“Stuff like that, yeah,” Nate answered without batting an eye.
Okay, so that was partially true.
“And what about you?” Larry looked across at her.
“I’m just a secretary for one of the offices in the building.
“Oh, honey. Don’t ever call yourself just a secretary. I was a teacher for thirty years and trust me. We all knew our secretaries were the ones holding that place together.”
Gracie smiled. “Thanks, Connie.”
“Sorry. Didn’t mean to interrupt. Please”—Larry held out a hand—“Continue with your story.”
As requested, Gracie went on with the fictional tale filled with half-truths.
“So, I was in the crosswalk headed back to work when this strikingly handsome man exited my building. Suddenly, it was as if everything else around me disappeared until we were the only two people left in the world. He was standing there, looking so strong and formidable. Like he was ready to take on the world. I couldn’t take my eyes off him.” She turned to Nate, surprised to find him staring down at her.